Extreme warming of tropical waters during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum

Aze, T.; Pearson, P. N.; Dickson, A.J.; Badger, M.P.S.; Bown, P. R.; Pancost, R. D.; Gibbs, S. J.; Huber, B. T.; Leng, M. J.; Coe, A.L.; Cohen, A.S. and Foster, G. L. (2014). Extreme warming of tropical waters during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. Geology, 42(9) pp. 739–742.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1130/G35637.1

Abstract

The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), ca. 56 Ma, was a major global environmental perturbation attributed to a rapid rise in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Geochemical records of tropical sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) from the PETM are rare and are typically affected by post-depositional diagenesis. To circumvent this issue, we have analyzed oxygen isotope ratios (δ18O) of single specimens of exceptionally well-preserved planktonic foraminifera from the PETM in Tanzania (~19°S paleolatitude), which yield extremely low δ18O, down to <–5‰. After accounting for changes in seawater chemistry and pH, we estimate from the foraminifer δ18O that tropical SSTs rose by >3 °C during the PETM and may have exceeded 40 °C. Calcareous plankton are absent from a large part of the Tanzania PETM record; extreme environmental change may have temporarily caused foraminiferal exclusion.

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